[4K] Dallas Love Field (DAL) Airport Walking Tour

Built during World War 1 as an army air service training base, Love Field was purchased by the City of Dallas in 1928 and used as the Dallas' first commercial airport. The airports first paved runways opened in 1932. By 1939 the airport had 21 weekday airline departures.

Love field is named after First Lieutenant Moss Lee Love who died in an airplane crash while practicing for his Military Aviator Test

On November 22, 1963 president John F. Kennedy arrived at Love Field on Air Force One and was assassinated within the hour while traveling from Love field to the Dallas Trade Mart.

In 1973, Love Field had more than 70 gates and was the eighth busiest airport in the United States with 6,668,398 passengers (i.e. enplanements). On January 13, 1974, DFW Airport opened, ending most passenger service at Love Field. By 1975, Love Field had only 467,212 passengers.

As you can see from the video above Love Field is much smaller today with just 20 gates (18 of which are operated by Southwest airlines), but with much greater efficiency serving 15,969,541 passengers in 2022 (by contrast the nearby DFW airport served over 73 million passengers in 2022).